At mid-afternoon, families and costumed kids began to roam around via Garibaldi, shaking down all the shop owners they could find. “Scherzetto dolcetto!” they cry (trick or treat), bouncing into shops and holding out bags or buckets or whatever container was available to receive some sort of placatory offering from the owner. I give a bonus point and a handful of bite-size Milky Ways to the kid who painted his soccer ball to resemble a pumpkin.
Over the past few years, Halloween has made inroads into the autumn-festival calendar here. I would say I’m at a loss to understand it, but then I realize that any excuse for a kid to wear a costume and score free candy is bound to be a success.
Venice had its own version of this sort of maneuver (without ghouls and skeletons) in the Saint Martin’s Day fun: Walking around the neighborhood banging on pots and pans and singing a doggerel song about St. Martin, annoying people and asking for handouts. So now the kids have managed to have two sugar-laden feste in the fall, and very close together. This shows either high intelligence or at the least, as a friend of mine used to put it, a form of low cunning.
Too much candy? How is that possible?The plastic bucket is the best.
The lady took so much time talking to the pharmacist that, hopeful as these marauders were, they finally gave up.The only thing more Halloweeny than fog in the daytime is fog at night ( here on the rio di San Piero). You totally expect to hear or see something creepy.On a brighter note, a morning row to our favorite farm on Sant’ Erasmo — “I Sapori di Sant’ Erasmo” — is a sort of orgy of autumnal goodness.
Checking out all the pomegranate trees lining the canal on Sant’ Erasmo. There were plenty, but mostly loaded with disastered fruit.As you see. Somewhere there is a bird asking itself “What was I thinking?”The best tree was at the farm. Looks like it’s practicing for Christmas.
Thanks for your note, and I’m so glad to hear from you although I don’t understand how the text is being clipped off, as you say.
Do you read my blog in this format? https://iamnotmakingthisup.net/35053/halloween-bite-size/ When you get the email announcing a post from me, instead of reading it in the email form, if you click on the post’s title, it will come up in what I refer to as the glamorous format. Don’t see any problems here.
Hope this resolves the problem. Let me know, okay?
I’d seen on the San Marco webcam the really thick fog yesterday, only once have I actually seen that in real life in Venice, and then all the vaps stopped, and everyone, muffled up, stomped cautiously around. Your lovely image on Sant’ Erasmo of the display that is a total harvest festival on its own was super. The pomegranate trees do look as if “someone” has had a really good peck at them. Thank you – I check up on your wonderful posts each day to keep me in touch.
We’re “in lockdown” again in UK, so the overflowing stream nearby will have to stand in for your Grand Canal for quite a while longer, it seems.
(Never liked Hallowe’en! Sorry)
Keep them coming! – Please.
Yes, we’re into the typical fogs of this time of year. I actually like them, in my own strange way, but I’m not inconvenienced by them in any way. And water in the air is preferable to water on the ground…And you may have picked up on my not liking Halloween, either. (Noted: Your correct spelling of the word.)
It was Saint Martin. He’s a Veneto phenomenon (if not elsewhere in the northeast). We mention him to students at the Naval school who come from Down South and they’ve never heard of him. Of course, they undoubtedly have saints we’ve never heard of. Lord know there’s enough of them to go around. Saints, I mean, not students.
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Erla, some of your text is being clipped off on the right side.
Thanks for your note, and I’m so glad to hear from you although I don’t understand how the text is being clipped off, as you say.
Do you read my blog in this format? https://iamnotmakingthisup.net/35053/halloween-bite-size/ When you get the email announcing a post from me, instead of reading it in the email form, if you click on the post’s title, it will come up in what I refer to as the glamorous format. Don’t see any problems here.
Hope this resolves the problem. Let me know, okay?
Hi, thank you for your news. Always great to hear from you. Even more so now England is going into lockdown again. Love the pomegranates.
As always, a delightful smile.
I’d seen on the San Marco webcam the really thick fog yesterday, only once have I actually seen that in real life in Venice, and then all the vaps stopped, and everyone, muffled up, stomped cautiously around. Your lovely image on Sant’ Erasmo of the display that is a total harvest festival on its own was super. The pomegranate trees do look as if “someone” has had a really good peck at them. Thank you – I check up on your wonderful posts each day to keep me in touch.
We’re “in lockdown” again in UK, so the overflowing stream nearby will have to stand in for your Grand Canal for quite a while longer, it seems.
(Never liked Hallowe’en! Sorry)
Keep them coming! – Please.
Yes, we’re into the typical fogs of this time of year. I actually like them, in my own strange way, but I’m not inconvenienced by them in any way. And water in the air is preferable to water on the ground…And you may have picked up on my not liking Halloween, either. (Noted: Your correct spelling of the word.)
– I remember kids thrashing a toy drum on 11th Nov years back – was it St Martin or someone training them in extortion of sweeties from shopkeepers?
It was Saint Martin. He’s a Veneto phenomenon (if not elsewhere in the northeast). We mention him to students at the Naval school who come from Down South and they’ve never heard of him. Of course, they undoubtedly have saints we’ve never heard of. Lord know there’s enough of them to go around. Saints, I mean, not students.